Psalms 105:45

105:45 so that they might keep his commands

and obey ¹  his laws.

Praise the Lord!

Psalms 119:12

119:12 You deserve praise, ²  O Lord!

Teach me your statutes!

Psalms 119:16

119:16 I find delight ³  in your statutes;

I do not forget your instructions. ⁴ 

Psalms 119:80

119:80 May I be fully committed to your statutes, ⁵ 

so that I might not be ashamed.

Psalms 119:171

119:171 May praise flow freely from my lips,

for you teach me your statutes.

Genesis 26:5

26:5 All this will come to pass ⁶  because Abraham obeyed me ⁷  and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” ⁸ 

Exodus 18:16

18:16 When they have a dispute, ⁹  it comes to me and I decide ¹⁰  between a man and his neighbor, and I make known the decrees of God and his laws.” ¹¹ 

Deuteronomy 4:5-6

4:5 Look! I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the Lord my God told me to do, so that you might carry them out in ¹²  the land you are about to enter and possess. 4:6 So be sure to do them, because this will testify of your wise understanding ¹³  to the people who will learn of all these statutes and say, “Indeed, this great nation is a very wise ¹⁴  people.”

Ezekiel 36:27

36:27 I will put my Spirit within you; ¹⁵  I will take the initiative and you will obey my statutes ¹⁶  and carefully observe my regulations. ¹⁷ 

¹ tn Heb “guard.”

² tn Heb “[are] blessed.”

³ tn The imperfects in this verse emphasize the attitude the psalmist maintains toward God’s law. Another option is to translate with the future tense, “I will find delight…I will not forget.”

⁴ tn Heb “your word.” Many medieval Hebrew mss as well as the LXX read the plural here.

⁵ tn Heb “may my heart be complete in your statutes.”

⁶ tn The words “All this will come to pass” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied for stylistic reasons.

⁷ tn Heb “listened to my voice.”

⁸ sn My charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. The language of this verse is clearly interpretive, for Abraham did not have all these laws. The terms are legal designations for sections of the Mosaic law and presuppose the existence of the law. Some Rabbinic views actually conclude that Abraham had fulfilled the whole law before it was given (see m. Qiddushin 4:14). Some scholars argue that this story could only have been written after the law was given (C. Westermann, Genesis, 2:424-25). But the simplest explanation is that the narrator (traditionally taken to be Moses the Lawgiver) elaborated on the simple report of Abraham’s obedience by using terms with which the Israelites were familiar. In this way he depicts Abraham as the model of obedience to God’s commands, whose example Israel should follow.

⁹ tn Or “thing,” “matter,” “issue.”

¹⁰ tn The verb שָׁפַט (shafat) means “to judge”; more specifically, it means to make a decision as an arbiter or umpire. When people brought issues to him, Moses decided between them. In the section of laws in Exodus after the Ten Commandments come the decisions, the מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishppatim).

¹¹ tn The “decrees” or “statutes” were definite rules, stereotyped and permanent; the “laws” were directives or pronouncements given when situations arose. S. R. Driver suggests this is another reason why this event might have taken place after Yahweh had given laws on the mountain (Exodus, 165).

¹² tn Heb “in the midst of” (so ASV).

¹³ tn Heb “it is wisdom and understanding.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “wise and understanding.”

¹⁵ tn Or “in the midst of you.” The word “you” is plural.

¹⁶ tn Heb “and I will do that which in my statutes you will walk.” The awkward syntax (verb “to do, act” + accusative sign + relative clause + prepositional phrase + second person verb) is unique, though Eccl 3:14 contains a similar construction. In the last line of that verse we read that “God acts so that (relative pronoun) they fear before him.” However, unlike Ezek 36:27, the statement has no accusative sign before the relative pronoun.

¹⁷ tn Heb “and my laws you will guard and you will do them.” Jer 31:31-34 is parallel to this passage.